


Early Birds

by wynnebat



Series: Just Write! Fluff Bingo 2019 [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Draco Malfoy, Bisexual Character, Coffee, EWE, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley Friendship, Minor Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, POV Ginny Weasley, Post-Canon, Quidditch Player Ginny Weasley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-18 20:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20197582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: “I call dibs on that one.” Ginny nodded to the man who was taking Wendy’s statement. She looked distraught, too distraught. The auror’s back was to Ginny, so perhaps he wasn’t as attractive as she hoped, but she liked him already: tailored auror’s robes, short blond hair, an attractive profile.Valmai raised an eyebrow in Ginny’s direction. “I didn’t think Malfoys were your type.”Ginny squinted, giving him a good, hard look, and, “Oh.”She took a long gulp of coffee. When she looked at him again, her initial attraction hadn’t magically faded.





	Early Birds

**Author's Note:**

> Fluff Bingo square: coffee.

Morning dawned early and energetically, with a song from the rooftops that had Ginny covering her ears with a pillow, then the rest of her head for good measure. Her morning wakeup spell rang incessantly. She knew better than to turn if off; if she did, she might fall asleep again, and be late for practice, and be subsequently murdered by Gwenog Jones. Even after three years on the Holyhead Harpies, Ginny was still enough of a fangirl that if she had to go, being murdered by her quidditch idol wouldn’t be the worst choice. But she’d rather stay alive, even if it did mean forcing herself out of bed.

She threw on some training clothes, old shorts and one of her many team t-shirts, and headed downstairs. At this hour of the morning, both her flatmates would be asleep. Ginny indulged in jealousy for a moment, then she indulged in an omelet and the biggest cup of coffee she could pour. Checking the clock, Ginny saw her arrow pointed to late, so she poured more coffee into a portable cup and pulled on her quidditch shoes.

With a pop of apparition, she was gone. Ginny opened her eyes, expecting the same bleary-eyed players she saw each morning. Instead she found a commotion. Several aurors roamed the quidditch pitch and she could see more through the windows of the main office. As the pitch was built and used only by the Holyhead Harpies, it had to be a team matter.

Ginny rubbed her eyes. Her clock was wrong; she wasn’t late at all. They’d be lucky to have practice today by the looks of things.

She approached her nearest teammate, glad it was the chatty Valmai rather than the taciturn Glenn. In a situation like this, gossip was more important than privacy. “What’s going on?”

“Starla was arrested for embezzlement,” Valmai explained, sounding breathless. “Gwenog turned her in. She tried to escape, but the blond auror over there took her down with one spell. I’ve never been happier to be awake this early.”

“Holy Merlin,” Ginny said. She took a sip from her portable coffee cup. Coffee never tasted quite right after apparition, but she needed something, and there was no alcohol allowed on the pitch. With a boost of caffeine, Ginny’s mind went to the most important issue there. She met Valmai’s gaze. “Do you think this—”

“—is going to affect our World Cup chances?” Valmai finished. “Almost certainly.”

“Fuck,” Ginny murmured cheerlessly. It was her first year on the team proper, no longer swapping in for injured players, although she’d gotten a goal in during a game last year. This was to be her year to prove herself. Now, it looked like the next week at least was going to be overshadowed by scandal. “Are we being sent home?”

If they were, she was taking over the local quiddicth pitch. She wasn’t about to let her skills get rusty because Starla couldn’t keep her hands out of the team’s already small coffers.

Valmai shrugged. “Maybe later. They’re talking to all the girls now. Routine questions, they said, but I figure they want to know if anyone else was in on it.”

“I call dibs on that one.” Ginny nodded to the man who was taking Wendy’s statement. She looked distraught, too distraught. The auror’s back was to Ginny, so perhaps he wasn’t as attractive as she hoped, but she liked him already: tailored auror’s robes, short blond hair, an attractive profile.

Valmai raised an eyebrow in Ginny’s direction. “I didn’t think Malfoys were your type.”

Ginny squinted, giving him a good, hard look, and, “_Oh_.”

She took a long gulp of coffee. When she looked at him again, her initial attraction hadn’t magically faded.

The back of the auror’s head did resemble Draco Malfoy’s. It had been years since she’d seen him; he hadn’t returned to Hogwarts for another year after the war, and it had been three years since her own graduation. She certainly knew of him: of Harry complaining when Malfoy entered auror training with him, of Luna mentioning his apology to her and Ollivander, of Ron’s complaints that he should have been thrown in Azkaban with his father instead of pardoned. But if Malfoy was there... Ginny looked around and found Harry half-hidden behind the bleachers, his interview with Marcy just finishing.

“Looking good, Auror Potter,” she called out, and laughed when he made a face at her.

Their relationship hadn’t lasted long enough for her to appreciate him in full auror robes, without the junior auror badge or stripes. His hair was messier than hers, and longer, too. She wasn’t surprised; Hermione had always had a thing for men with long hair, and what her friend wanted, she was probably going to get. Harry was hopelessly smitten.

As Ginny approached, Harry was quick to say, “I can’t talk about the investigation.”

“Not even with me?” Ginny asked, batting her eyelashes. “We’re family. Family tells each other everything.”

Harry shook his head, but Ginny knew what he looked like when he was trying not to smile. “I had to hear that you and Wilda broke up from Hermione. How do you think that makes me feel?”

“Like you’ve been too busy to go out with us lately. I haven’t seen you in weeks; Ron thinks the Head Auror finally managed to work you to death.” Ginny grinned. “But I see you’re still in touch with Hermione.” She teased Harry for a while, making up for lost time, and with the knowledge that Harry was bursting to talk about it anyway.

“If anyone asks, this was a work conversation. But speaking of,” Harry said, pausing to sigh deeply. “There’s no other way to say this.”

“You suspect me of embezzling,” Ginny said, nodding. She put on a grave expression. “Handcuff me, auror.”

“I would know if you were embezzling. It might mean you’d actually pay your own tab. What I meant to ask was—are you dating?”

Ginny looked at him with some suspicion. “Depends.”

“Malfoy asked if you’re single last week.”

“_Well_,” Ginny said, dragging out the word, and Harry’s pained expression at having to matchmake.

She looked over at Draco and found him looking their way, but he quickly turned back to his questioning. Ginny had never found auror’s robes attractive until today. Ginny had always liked a person in uniform; while she preferred a quidditch uniform, exceptions could be made for a man who looked like Draco Malfoy. Asshole that he may have been in school, he looked handsome now, and he seemed to get on well with Harry after their early growing pains as auror partners. If Harry was passing on Draco’s interest, then he must approve of it on some level. 

The only problem was... Ginny glanced down at herself. Black shorts, old team shirt, muddy quidditch shoes. She hadn’t dressed with the intention of flirting today. “Are you sure he’s still interested?”

Harry shook his head. “He’s looked over here no less than five times. He’s interested. Not even your hair put him off.”

“My hair is impeccable,” Ginny huffed, and took the time to ask Harry some more questions while she discreetly watched the target of her new interest make his way around the pitch. She probably wasn’t watching him in any way that would fly below the notice of an auror, but that wasn’t the point at all.

When he finally made his way over to them, looking more handsome up close, Draco glanced between them and said, “Flirting on the job, Potter?” Despite his words, his gaze was on Ginny, and she liked it.

“Not with Harry,” Ginny replied, and grinned. “Can you question me over coffee? There’s a cafe in the office building.”

“You already have coffee,” Harry muttered from behind her.

To which she replied to by passing her portable cup to him and saying, “You can never have enough coffee.”

“I agree,” Draco said, and walked with her.

Ginny may not have expected her morning to turn out this way, but when opportunity was blond, coffee-loving, and handsome, she wasn’t about to turn it down.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm also on [tumblr](https://wynnefic.tumblr.com/).


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